Welcome to an 'inch of difference'.
"This inch in which we live." Richard Neville, Oz, 1971.

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."

Saturday, 29 December 2012

Classic Hegelian Dialect in Practice

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas. Things brightened up around here yesterday when we recovered from the norovirussy-lurgi-thingy. Bathroom duties, if I may be so indelicate, lasted a whole week but getting over the weakness and starting to eat properly again is a gradual process. Anyway, it looks as though all is well now :)

From time to time I dipped into the online press and rarely has anything given me so much amusement as the jostling for position by EU luminaries as they vied to grab the most ridiculous headline. "If Britain leaves the EU... wolves will eat your children; chickens will poop on you from a great height; the seas will rise and engulf you all; your men will become pox-ridden and your women gin-soaked..." Yes, we get the message.

Two days before Christmas Wolfgang Schauble gave us his thoughts and then, on the 27th, Haiku Herman popped up swiftly followed by Jacques Delors and Vivian Reding. I've been disappointed today to see there's no follow-up by Verhofstadt or Barroso on the basis that one can never have too much merriment.

A couple of hours ago, whilst having nothing better to do I thought I'd stick my nose in where it wasn't wanted and I wrote this comment under the Reding article:

If there is a UK-wide referendum on EU membership, specific legislation will have to be enacted by Parliament. This legislation will also determine who is enfranchised, ie whether to extend the vote to 16/17yr olds or to all EU foreign nationals currently resident in the UK. We shall have to keep an eye on it. For the avoidance of doubt, current legislation regarding the enfranchisement of EU nationals only extends to local elections or devolved parliaments/assemblies and not to UK General Elections, nor to referenda.

Lord Wallace, a fellow Liberal Democrat, replied that it was his party's policy to extend the franchise to this age group, but it was not part of the coalition's plans. He also told peers that each UK-wide referendum had to be individually approved by Parliament.On each occasion, that meant setting out specific criteria for those able to take part, he added. Lord Wallace, a former Deputy First Minister of Scotland, added: "If there was a referendum on the European Union, it would be a matter for Parliament to determine what that franchise is."

I rest my case. 16/17yr olds voting in an in/out EU referendum? EU foreign nationals voting in a British in/out EU referendum? Sounds more like loading the dice to me. We need to keep a very careful watch on the specific legislation that will be introduced with any referendum. Scrub that: we just need to keep a very careful watch on ANY legislation this government introduces. For example, something so apparently simple as enabling the first-born royal to inherit the throne is fraught with anomalies and means that more than one piece of legislation must be amended. Who knows what advantage these snakes-in-the-grass will take to tinker with our Constitution while we're looking the other way?

I listened to a radio phone-in this morning. Ken Livingstone and Stanley Johnson were the hosts of the show and their guest was someone whose name I missed, a British Civil Servant who had been 'influential within the EU'. These three patted each other on their backs, congratulated themselves for their common sense and all agreed with each other that disaster would lie ahead for a Great Britain outside of the EU. They trotted out the same old lies about trade, about jobs, about law and order - I tire of tweeting them the truth because they never correct themselves. I was beside myself. Two of the three are in receipt of an EU pension providing they toe the line and support the project - talk about vested interests - except they didn't. The callers were overwhelmingly anti-EU but were dismissed as idiots for 'not understanding' the real issues and in some instances were lied to.

There will be much more to come and if we think this is bad wait until, if, Cameron declares an in/out referendum. We ain't seen nothing yet.

As for Hegel, the well-publicised conversations between David Cameron, our Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the institutions of the EU as reported in our national media are a classic example. Inch by inch, increment by increment, two steps forward, one step back.

The EU is the process where parasitic socialist countries who are failing reach out and attach themselves to countries who still have some bread on the shelf.

It will fail.

Same thing here in the USA, where states solidly longtime under democratic rule are falling like flies, and will no doubt start feeding off of the healthy republican ruled economically growing states via federal taxation.

This will also fail. It's only a question of whether all the states fail or just the parasites. Of course, I hope it will be the parasites.

Hammy died; Sammy passed away from malnutrition; Suki was resurrected. Lucky ran away. Here's Lucky's brother, Chucky:"What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare? Click my wheel to feed me.

"Harmlessly passing your time in the grassland away;Only dimly aware of a certain unease in the air.You'd better watch out!There may be dogs aboutI looked over Jordan, and I've seenThings are not what they seem.

That's what you get for pretending the danger's not real.Meek and obedient you follow the leaderDown well trodden corridors into the valley of steel.What a surprise!A look of terminal shock in your eyes.Now things are really what they seem.No, this is not a bad dream.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not wantHe makes me down to lieThrough pastures green He leadeth me the silent waters by.With bright knives He releaseth my soul.He maketh me to hang on hooks in high places.He converteth me to lamb cutlets,For lo, He hath great power, and great hunger.When cometh the day we lowly ones,Through quiet reflection, and great dedicationMaster the art of Judo,Lo, we shall rise up,And then we'll make the bugger's eyes water.

Bleating and babbling we fell on his neck with a scream.Wave upon wave of demented avengersMarch cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream.

Have you heard the news?The dogs are dead!You better stay homeAnd do as you're told.Get out of the road if you want to grow old."

Reform and revolutionary change that is undertaken without the explicit consent of the people, can only be maintained through force and repression.